Building a Traditional Sharpie Today

ost boat yards today are usually too busy turning out repair work to have time to build boats for either fun or profit. The work load always postpones boat building projects until "next year." With the hope of making "next year" arrive sooner, I proposed building a boat, after normal working hours, at Dutch Wharf Boat Yard, where I'm employed. John Jacques, the yard owner, offered to provide the materials and shop facilities, and Walter Haddock and I (later joined by Vincent Falcigno) set out on a unique "spare time professional boat building project." We decided that an open boat would be the most economical in time and material and that a traditional work boat type would be of greatest interest to potential buyers. The project was to be a test platform for some of our ideas on combining traditional and modern methods and materials. One-Man New Haven Sharpie (lines drawing from American Small Sailing Craft, Chapelle, 1932) Construction began in January 1973 on a replica of the 28 foot New Haven sharpie from American Small Sailing Craft, published by W. W. Norton Co., New York (1951). Our choice of type was influenced by the reduced investment of time and labor required by the flat-bottomed hull and unstayed rig. In addition, the long water line and light displacement indicate a hull capable of rather spectacular performance under sail. The oysterman of a century ago valued his sharpie because it was fast, easily handled by a small crew and inexpensive to build for its length. We expect that the twentieth century boatman will find it a versatile daysailer easily trailered or beached, or pushed by a small outboard when not under sail. By reputation the sharpie's sailing characteristics were rapid acceleration and the ability to approach planing speeds. It was actually an early type of high performance sailing craft. Working New Haven sharpies were more or less standardized into two lengths: the "one man" or "100 bushel" boats with one mast (early boats were two masted), 26 to 28 feet overall length. The larger "two man" or "150 bushel" boat was two masted and approximately 35 feet long. The construction of the stern framing assembly and the stave planking prior to fairing off is apparent here. The plans of the two sizes and examples of the vessels are quite similar, they are narrow, flat bottomed boats with strong sheer and flaring sides, low freeboard, raking stems and round sterns. There are few of this neglected type surviving outside of museums despite the fact that there were sharpies actively fishing around New Haven into the 1930's. Sailing craft fished the oyster beds of the Connecticut shore up to the mid 1950's and it is possible that a few sharpies were in service right to the end of this period: The lines were lofted on three sheets of ½ inch plywood, an easy enough job since the hull has only two lines to fair, sheer and chine in any view. Moulds were made from lumber yard #2 pine. Accurate lofting is worth the time spent since the ease of picking up patterns more than repays the initial effort. We followed an old builders' practice of setting up the bulkheads at stations #4 and #10 in place of temporary moulds, a worthwhile saving in time. Construction details. note the clean simplicity of the cross-planked bottom. Hull construction is simple, and the heavy planking (1¼") actually ties the framing together, whereas in more conventional flat-bottom construction, side frames are fastened to chine and sheer cl